Knowledge is the very essence of the soul.
Consciousness, knowledge, and soul are much about the same thing.
Knowledge is a positive state of the living being. The instrumental cause
of knowledge is the teacher, language, the thing unknown, or a
representation of it. The teacher does not literally impart knowledge; he
is simply the instrumental cause or means whereby the person is enabled to
develop his own knowledge. The substantial cause of knowledge is the soul,
the sense that a thing is the cause of its own qualities. Knowledge cannot
be put into a person from the outside; it must be self-developed. And the
words of an instructor will not produce knowledge in the pupil unless the
pupil is in the right state.

There are five kinds of knowledge, and so there are
five kinds of knowledge-obscuring -energies (Jnanavaraniya karma).

Any energy or activity which obscures knowledge by
the senses (Matijnana).

Any energy which obscures knowledge got by
interpretation of signs (Srutajnana). Words are signs of ideas.
Also if a dog sees his master beckon with his hand, the dog interprets
the sign and knows that his master wants him to come.

Any energy which obscures psychic knowledge (Avadhijnana).
That is, knowledge of material things known by the soul directly without
contact with the end-organ of sense (clairvoyance etc.).

Any energy which obscures mind-knowing. that is,
knowledge of the ideas and thoughts of others (Manahparyavajnana).

The last three kinds of knowledge are acquired directly
by the soul without the intervention of the senses and the mind.

These are the energies in the first class. And of the
five kinds of knowledge, the first three can be of two kinds, false or
true : thus making eight kinds of knowledge.

In gaining knowledge by the senses (Matijnana)
the following process is gone through, namely, the sense organ, ear, hand,
etc. is brought into contact with the vibrations from the external object,
and an excitation in the sense organ is aroused (vyanjanaavagraha).
then follows an excitation in the mind (artha-avagraha) and the
consciousness comes to be in the state where it asks the question : "What
is this?" and the question refers to the object sensed, and not to the
excitation in the sense organ. The mind may also pass through this stage
when, upon picturing something mentally to itself which was seen in the
past, it asks the question: "What was that?" The mind itself does not come
in contact with physical objects. The next stage in the process is a
consciousness of similarities and differences (iha); a sort of
cogitation which goes on in the mind. This stage is followed by reaching a
conclusion as to what the object is, or is not (avaya). Then the
final stage in the process is that the thing can be remembered (dharana);
or that the knowledge gained continues; also the life may be changed in
consequence of the new knowledge.

These are the stages passed through in acquiring
knowledge by the senses (Matijnana). And any energy in us, which
prevents the operation of any part of the process would be an energy of
the first class, or knowledge-obscuring.

When these unnatural activities are stopped, then the
inherent qualities of the soul become active and actual. Memory, judgment,
perception, etc., are the results of the stopping of these unnatural
knowledge-obscuring energies. the constitution of man is such that as soon
as he removes moral vices, his intellectual processes flow into a pure
channel.

2) DARSANAVARNIYA

(energies which render the soul impure.)

In speaking of knowledge, it was understood to be
detailed knowledge. Before we know a thing in a detailed way there is the
stage where we simply see, hear, or otherwise become conscious of it in a
general way without going into its ins and outs. We simply know it as
belonging to a class; we may know it as a horse, for instance, without
going into any further details as to its individual characteristics. this
is the first stage of knowledge; it may be called undefined knowledge or
indefinite cognition (darsana). If this stage is not experienced there can
be no knowledge of the thing. The second class of the energies in question
includes any of our activities which prevent this first stage of
knowledge. They would be such states as sleep, trance, etc., in which the
senses do not work and the very first stage of knowledge by the senses is
prevented. According to the Jain teachings sleep is not absolutely
necessary in order to be healthy and happy, otherwise permanent
omniscience could not be reached. (See clause 15, Deity, Chapter V).

This class also includes energies which prevent the
first stage of psychic knowledge (avadhi.)

3) VEDANIYA

Energies, the nature of which is to cause any activity
in us which in its operation causes either pain or pleasure. These are
distinguished from feelings of anger, fear, greed, sex passion, etc.,
because feelings of pain and pleasure as here meant in technical sense are
not necessarily so hindering to the progress of the soul that omniscience
cannot be attained (Vedaniya agahati karma). If, however, we
identify ourselves with either of them we stop, and do not continue in
thought about the thing causing them. They are both unnatural to the pure
soul, for there is no pain or pleasure in awareness; blissfulness is a
natural quality of the pure soul and accompanies consciousness, while in
man and animals there may be pain and consciousness of pain at the same
time, but the two are different.

4) MOHANIYA

Energies, the nature of which is to infatuate us so
that we cannot distinguish between right and wrong belief (Darsana-Mohaniya)
and so that we are prevented from acting rightly (Caritra-Mohaniya).
Thus there are two chief kinds of these forces first, that which obstructs
our faculty of realizing and relishing the truth, and secondly, that which
in its operation makes us unable to act rightly, - it is moral uncleanness
and non-perception of what is right. Right action as here meant is right
action accompanied by the conviction that it is right.

Darsana-Mohaniya:

Mithyatva Mohaniya karma

That degree by reason of which the person does not
believe in the truth at all when it is presented to him. By reason of the
operation of this force the person is entirely under the rule of delusion;
what is false seems true to him, and what is true seems false. One of the
objects of philosophy and religion is to wake us up from our delusions.
When a man, knowing the truth, speaks untruth, his works do not correspond
with his thoughts. But when he is deluded his speech may correspond with
his thought and yet be untruth; it is the expression of a delusion. In the
Jain Philosophy the measure of truth is held to be knowledge purged of all
infatuating elements. When we are deluded we cannot at the time know it;
if we knew it, we should not be in a state of delusion, but in a state of
knowledge. When we are not deluded we know that we are not; and in order
to wake up from a state of delusion into a state in which we know that we
are not deluded we have to remove our moral vices, especially intense and
lifelong anger, greed, etc. (Mithyatva Mohaniya karma).

Misra Mohaniya karma

The second degree of the energies in us whose nature it
is to infatuate us so that we cannot distinguish between right and wrong
belief is that degree by reason of which we doubt the truth after we have
believed it; we believe for some time and then there is doubt; we are
vacillating. When this degree is active we just let the truth pass by
without either liking it or disliking it; the state is a sort of
indifference; whereas when the first named degree of this kind of energy
is active, we positively dislike and reply the truth. (Misra Mohaniya
karma).

Samyaktva Mohaniya karma

The third degree is that by reason of which while
believing in the truth most of the time, yet at certain times we feel that
three is still something more to be known; there is just a little
vacillating in the state (Samyaktva Mohaniya karma).

We now come to the kind which in its operation makes us
unable to act rightly. It is this kind of force in us that covers up the
heart and makes us unkind, unsympathetic, and, when intense, cruel. For
certain reasons of convenience in classification and system twenty-five
kinds are enumerated in the Jain doctrine. Each one is of an intoxicating
nature. They are :

Caritra-Mohaniya

1 to 16. Anger, or rash and injurious action. Pride,
causing us to ignore the sanctity of life in inferior beings, or to
overlook good qualities in a otherwise inferior. Deceitfulness, where the
thought does not correspond with the speech or with the action. Greed,
which arises from the identification of ourselves with that which is not
ourselves. Of each of these intoxicating energies four degrees of
intensity are recognized, the one which would last for the rest of the
life being the most intense. Thus out of twenty-five energies we have
sixteen which prevent us in greater or lesser degree from acting rightly.

17 to 25. The remaining nine energies are false liking,
false disliking due to prejudice, laughing and joking - in this mood we
are not in the straight line of the acquisition of truth; sorrow or grief,
in which state our actions are injurious to the body, also we may
wrongfully blame others; fear prevents right action, the more there is of
kind desire to do good to others the less there will be of fear; disgust
this stops right thought and right action. Thus we have six of the nine
energies; the remaining three are the sex passion as found in males,
females, and neuters.

Thus we have twenty-eight forces in us under the
influence of which we allow ourselves to be deluded and to act wrongly.
They may be compared to a stimulating intoxicating liquor. When we have
freed ourselves from their influence we shall always form right beliefs
and always act rightly, making no mistakes.